We had a private boat tour the next day. One part of the tour is they take you to a private island for a few hours. Lucky for us, we had packed leftover pizza and drinks so it was the perfect time to have a little lunch.
As we were approaching the island we had this conversation:
Leslie: are there monkeys on this island?
Boat Driver (BD): Yes.
Leslie: what do we do if a monkey comes?
BD: Hahaha
Us: no seriously
BD: see that stick? Use it.
So, we thought this was all a big joke. We talked about how much trash was on the island and how terrible people are. We picked up the stick and took funny pics of us holding the stick to “fend off” the monkeys.
We swam, we ate, we drank. We found a jellyfish.
I had a piece of pizza in my hand and got in the water to talk to Leslie and Denise…a big wave came and soaked my pizza. So, I threw it in the trash bag we had cleverly hung in the tree, you know, in case of monkeys. Later, Leslie and I were on the beach and Denise says…”uhhh, guys, monkey…” and then he was upon us.
Mom and I picked up sticks and started shaking them at him. I started grabbing bags and handing them back to people saying things like “hold THIS!”, “take THAT!”…I was told to hit him at one point, which I did not. I finally reached up and grabbed the trash bag out of the tree and threw it like everyone else had (which we had prematurely judged, clearly). The monkey ran over, ate the soggy/salty pizza, drank the rest of a beer, wiped his mouth, stared us down and walked off as quickly as he came. We were TERRIFIED. We had an hour left and were all alone on the island.
We made it back to the hotel and on the way to our room mentioned our day with the monkeys and our room number. The guy just laughed, knowingly. We KIND OF shrugged it off.
So went to bed early. Mom, Denise and I got up super early and watched an amazing sunrise the next morning. We then got prime seating 4 chairs! Leslie was bringing coffee so I met her in the lobby to help carry.
As we were heading down the stairs, I saw a monkey IN THE LOBBY. And it looked like it COULD jump on us as we walked by. This is when we noticed there were a suspicious number of hotel workers milling about. THEN we noticed their sling shots. There was a huge troop of monkeys on the roof. We came back and told Denise and mom our harrowing story and showed them pictures of the sling shots.
Awhile later, mom and I went to get everyone drinks. It was hot already. When we came back, there was a HUGE group surrounding our chairs. Denise and Leslie are standing back from our chairs. Apparently, Leslie opened a Pringles type can of chips. A monkey ran out and charged at her. So, she threw the chips. A French family nearby threw a croissant. Everyone trying to keep them at a distance. I ran over to a random worker and just said “the monkeys are on our chairs!!” and he said he was going to get someone but never did.
And, then, we decided to go to lunch at the Indian restaurant overlooking the beach...